Scripture Central

In this compelling installment of Handmaidens, Harems, and Heroines, Dr. Lynne Hilton Wilson continues her illuminating walk through the later chapters of Genesis (42–50), bringing to life the women and cultural dynamics woven through the final act of the Joseph narrative.
Viewers will hear fresh insights about the ancient Egyptian world where Hebrew women—unlike in many neighboring societies—could own property, manage legal affairs, and exercise a surprising degree of autonomy in family life and commerce in some contexts—setting the stage for understanding how Jacob’s family navigated life in Egypt’s Delta. Drawing on historical and cultural sources, Dr. Wilson highlights how these social realities shaped the experiences of Israelite women in a foreign land.

This video also explores Jacob’s visit to Pharaoh in Genesis 47, a moment that underscores the dramatic rise of Joseph’s family from famine refugees to honored guests in Egypt’s royal court, with Jacob himself offering blessings and receiving respect from the king.
We also meet Serah, the daughter (or granddaughter) of Asher, whose brief biblical mention belies a rich later tradition about her role in preserving family memory and legacy in the land of Egypt.
Plus, Dr. Wilson ties in recent archaeological work in the Goshen region (Tell el-Dab’a)—ancient Avaris—where excavations reveal a thriving Semitic city in the Nile Delta that may illuminate the cultural backdrop of Israel’s settlement in Egypt and offer tangible context for the stories we read in Genesis.

Your Eternal Father loves you more than anyone has ever loved another. All He does is for you and His children. He offers you and all His children everywhere supernal gifts, but most of His children neither receive nor rejoice in His marvelous gifts, and as a result, they are weak and unhappy, and heaven weeps with them.

Can you imagine the sadness and disappointment of Our Father if we do not accept His magnificent gifts, when His children ignore Him after all He has done? Enoch saw that not only Heavenly Father but the whole of the heavens weep when we refuse or neglect His gifts.

What are the greatest gifts our Father offers all His children everywhere from the beginning of time?

His Son, His Spirit, and His life. Those are God’s greatest gifts to His children. To accept and receive those gifts is the best of all human conditions. What is the inconceivably high price paid to make them available? The creation, the fall, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and all the Gods have done and do “… to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.”

Words cannot describe, nor can we conceive or measure the height, the breadth, the depth of the gift of God’s own Son. “No tongue can speak, neither can there be written by any man, neither can the hearts of men conceive (anything) so great and marvelous” as Jesus Christ, the Son of God by whom salvation and all good things are possible.

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In this episode of Handmaidens, Harems, and Heroines, Lynne Hilton Wilson explores the rich and often complicated stories of women in Genesis 37–41, shining a thoughtful Latter-day Saint lens on narratives that are frequently overshadowed by the story of Joseph. Dr. Wilson brings depth and cultural insight to the account of Dinah, whose story in Genesis 34 echoes into the later family tensions surrounding Joseph; Tamar, whose courageous and calculated actions in Genesis 38 preserve covenant lineage; and Potiphar’s wife, a powerful yet unnamed Egyptian woman whose encounter with Joseph in Genesis 39 raises questions about power, agency, morality, and voice.

With careful attention to ancient Near Eastern context and covenant theology, this episode highlights how these women—whether victims, heroines, or antagonists—play essential roles in moving the Abrahamic story forward. Dr. Wilson invites viewers to look beyond surface readings and consider issues of honor, inheritance, justice, and faith in a patriarchal world. As Joseph rises from slavery to leadership in Egypt, the stories of these women remind us that God’s purposes unfold through complex human experiences—and that even the most difficult narratives in Genesis offer profound spiritual lessons for modern disciples.

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